How do you learn English?
When I first started learning French, I wondered whether I should learn lots of words, or if I should learn phrases (combinations of words) instead. Another possibility is that I could learn whole sentences. Learning sentences seemed too difficult for me as a beginner in French, but as I learned more and more, I realized it was the most useful way for me to learn.
Of course we need to learn words, especially when we first start learning a language. We also need phrases, especially idiomatic phrases , which can help our language sound more natural. But the most important thing is learning whole sentences. If you only learn words or phrases, you may never learn to use whole sentences. On the other hand, if you learn to use sentences, you will also learn words and phrases at the same time.
Read my advice to students on how to learn English and tell me if you agree or not.
EnglishLearner Said,
March 26, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
Hi teacher joe! I do agree that you have to learn sentences… for me it´s been really helpfull to translate songs from english, people can think of them as the combination of many sentences, don´t you think?
teacherjoe Said,
March 27, 2008 @ 1:40 am
I agree that songs are a great way to learn. In fact, I wrote an article about learning through songs (see http://www.teacherjoe.us/LearnEnglish18.html) which I hope can be helpful to some students. In fact, I’m putting my own advice to work by learning Chinese songs.
Nafis Said,
May 4, 2008 @ 3:06 am
I totally agree with this Fantastic advice.I can not forget the whole sentences but, I forget the words very quickly, and it also helps my listening. For a long time , I did not understand that why I could not comprehend a listening part even though I know many many vocabularies. Now, I know why. I have to train my mind to learn the whole sentences instead of words.